The team is back and I must say stepping off the plane after the 19 hour journey they looked amazing! There must be something in that Amazon water.

They have had at least three nights trying to beat the jet lag to sleep and now it is time for reflection and looking anew at their life back home.

The Adventurers had the toughest of times – suffering from the relentless insect bites, humidity that kept them at a minimum of “slightly sweaty” all the time, a monotonous diet of “rice and fried stuff,” and of course the building of a structure they could never have imagined they could build just a week or two before. These pictures give you an indication of the scale and complexity of what they did. The village chose to make it a meeting place for the region, an outdoor classroom, a stadium of sorts and the start of a larger stone complex that the government will build this year. The reception on the last day from the locals and even politicians was emotional.

But there were smiles all round when we met up last night. The team have made friendships that will last a lifetime and memories too. There were lots of laughs about eating worms…which taste of nuts apparently and pop in your mouth.

While they all agree the experience in Brazil was amazing, oh boy were they happy to be back in Doha! Air conditioning, lights you can turn on at night and flushing toilets…and the food, oh boy the food. And clean and easy places to pray…they list goes on and on. In the jungle it took them a canoe, then a boat, then a taxi, then a bus and finally a car to reach the nearest town. Here everything is just a hop away.

The girls in particular have been overwhelmed with the support from not just friends and family but colleagues and people from all over Qatar. We at Mediadante join them in saying a huge THANK YOU for that. It boosted the team when they needed it most. We hope that this story, a simple one of young people reaching beyond their limits to achieve something for other people, whilst at the same time learning so much about themselves and the world can be one to inspire others to the same.

We will be putting a film together for the group, their families and perhaps an audience beyond showing that human achievement. We are very proud of the team and our team too who worked so hard to finish the project and to come safely back home with new experiences to share and enrich their lives in Qatar.

The team has done it! The school building is complete, even the playing field outside is prepared and on Monday after a very hard earned day of rest the team will celebrate with a football tournament held by the village.

Today girls have been making Acai juice – which is one of the main sources of income for the villagers. The boys have been out spear fishing along the Amazon with a few Brazilian hunters.

The local mayor visited on Saturday as the final touches were being being put into place at the building. We should have pictures for you by Tuesday.

They are extremely proud of the work they have done and all they have achieved to make it this far…. but now only thing the team is talking about right now is quite how good their first shower, proper meal and mosquito-free sleep is going to be when they get back to Manaus tomorrow. The jungle has been amazing, but the insects will not be missed! Goodbye little fellas.

So….as I write the team should be making the final touches to the school….which has now turned into an assembly hall…and you could possibly call it a sports hall too! The local Brazilians have decided to level a playing field outside with the help of the Adventurers and make a place for sports too. This venue is the only place in the region for the local community to congregate for miles around.

Friday was a day of painting and finalising the building. On Sunday there will be a football match and Tameem hopes to make an impact on a team with all the Qatari boys on it.

Thursday was a day of learning for the team. They worked with local carpenters to put the wooden roof structure in place. They also cut down and unrolled palm leaves to dry out and flatten ahead of putting them up on the roof on Friday.

It was an exhausting day and as usual everyone was in bed by 8pm…with no electricity once the sun goes down it is a quick countdown to sleep! Being just six hours behind Qatar and with the late night summer hours of the team’s homeland there is very little difference between their waking hours and ours back home. So as parents and friends are going to bed so are the Adventurers ready for a new start tomorrow.

Word from the Mediadante team is that Wednesday saw the Adventurers really relax into the routine of getting the build done. They have now decided the final design so with the foundations finished they turned to putting up all the wooden poles and supports needed to build the actual structure.

Meanwhile preparations in the village have begun for a festival to celebrate when the school is finished – hopefully this Saturday. We are looking forward to seeing what a festival means in this part of the world. People are going to come from all around the region.

The Adventurers are finding the physical aspect of the building hard – there are splinters and blisters galore. But that is not stopping them and they are learning to work as a team to support each other. And they are also learning their individual strengths and weaknesses.

On Tuesday work began on digging the foundations for the new building. It is hard work – it is hot and humid. More humid that Qatar even! But the work must be done so the team is working together in shifts to get through it all.

When they are not digging they have been working out the best way to meet the needs of the local population. The girls went to speak to one of the teachers from the old, burnt down school and met some of the best and brightest students to find out how they would like the new school to look and what services they hope it will have.

The whole team also got a lesson in carpentry as well from a local craftsman who taught them how to use jungle materials in order to build the school. It turns out some of them have quite a talent for woodwork!

After all they have endured the last few weeks…climbing mountains, sleeping in the jungle, battling insects, cleaning a new space for prayer several times a day, eating very simple food…Aisha, Maqdeem, Mohammed, Tameem, Sami, Leila and Noor say they are relieved to have the clear task of the school to focus on.

The team is going to be getting a visit from a local politician on Friday who is keen to know more about these people who have come such a long way and endured such difficult conditions in order to build them a new school. He is coming to thank them.

So many people are asking what is happening in the jungle I thought we should update you whenever we have news.

Noor, Aisha, Maqdeem, Leila, Mohammed, Sami and Tameem have seen everything written about them in the press and online. There was a great discussion about what to do next over the weekend. They all spoke with their families and some leading members of Qatari society gave them a call and offered their support.

On Monday they woke up, rolled up their mosquito nets, shook the insects out of their boots, ate a simple meal and began what they came there to do…building the school.

The girls spent a lot of time with the women of the village of Arahina on Sunday and felt inspired to see what more they could do for family health education in particular. Between them the Aisha, Maqdeem, Noor and Leila have some amazing skills of both engineering and communication and they hope to find a way to continue their contribution to the education of women and children in the village long after the project is finished. First they have to find out how they might be able to help…what the key problems are.

The Brazilian government has promised to build a solid structure school in the village at some point in the future. When that happens the wooden structure the Adventurers are building will be turned into a community centre and since it will be the only one for at least one hour canoe’s ride around, and the village has one of the only roads leading to it in the area they hope it might become a place that could attract tourists. They will hold festivals there and it will be the local polling centre too.

We aim to print pictures of the building of the centre and beauty shots of the jungle for them to display inside the building later.